The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on April 7 denounced President Donald Trump’s threat that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if the Iranian regime does not meet his deal deadline.
“The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified,” Archbishop Paul Coakley said at the beginning of his statement, which was published hours after Trump posted the deadly threat on Truth Social.
“There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples,” Archbishop Coakley wrote. “I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.”
As Zeale News reported, Trump said in the Truth Social statement that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Archbishop Coakley urged the faithful to pray amid the escalation and echoed the calls for peace made by Pope Leo XIV on Easter Sunday in his Urbi et Orbi address.
The Pontiff also announced in the address that he will hold a prayer vigil for peace April 11 at St. Peter’s Basilica. The USCCB president called on all the faithful to spiritually participate.
“I make a special plea to my brother bishops, the priests, the laity, and all people yearning for true peace to join the Holy Father’s Vigil for Peace, whether virtually, or in parishes, chapels, or before the Lord present in the quiet of their hearts to join with our Holy Father as we pray for peace in our world,” Archbishop Coakley said.
The archbishop also emphasized the first words Christ said to His disciples in Jerusalem after His resurrection: “Peace be with you.”
The archbishop noted that Pope Leo had said in his address that this peace from Christ “is not a peace that merely silences the weapons, but one that touches and transforms the heart of each of us.”
Quoting the end of the Holy Father’s address, Archbishop Coakley concluded by encouraging the faithful “to entrust to the Lord ‘all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only he can give. Let us entrust ourselves to him and open our hearts to him! He is the only one who makes all things new.’”